driftfleet | who's steering this thing anyway?

Entry tags:

who's steering this thing anyway?

Who: Red Fish Crew
Broadcast: Nope
Action: SS Red Fish
When: after dat shuffle

Ugh!

[The burst of confetti goes completely unappreciated once Cassandra is moved to the bridge of the Red Fish. She brushes it off her shoulders and bends over a little to brush it out of her hair. Just when she thinks this couldn't get more absurd, she's proven immediately wrong. No one mentioned confetti to her when they said she'd be transferred to another ship soon. They also didn't mention the teleporting either, but the confetti is easier to be annoyed with because it's concrete.]

[Once she's fairly certain she's managed to get the confetti off her, she's doesn't hang around on the bridge for long. She completely ignores the music and the dessert. Someone else can have it. She'd rather get her bearings and inspect parts of the ship. Like the armory.]

[Maybe especially the armory.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Chantry spreads the teachings of the prophet and wife of the Maker, Andraste. We call these teachings the Chant of Light.

At the head is a Divine. Each Divine is chosen by an election among the Grand Clerics after a unanimous vote after the death of the previous one. Although it is not uncommon for a Divine to make a choice herself beforehand, it is not a guarantee. She must still be elected by the Grand Clerics.

The Divine oversees all Chantry business from the Grand Cathedral in Orlais, provided she is able and age has not caught up with her yet. There are chantries all across Thedas with Revered Mothers at their head that manage smaller matters. Aside from providing guidance to those who have need of it, these chantries care for the sick and the poor, provide safe refuge for travelers, and relay messages.

There are also Templars and Seekers that monitor the Circle of Magi. Their duties have always been to protect the people from dark magic, but Templars became guardians to mages rather than their hunters after the Nevarran Accord was signed.

[Sye is positively fascinated, honestly.]

If the Circle of Magi is such a dangerous organization that they need watchers, why not simply disband it? Wouldn't it be easier to keep dark magicians and wizards in check, if they are away from each other, instead of allowing them to pool their power?

[Clearly, she does not get it. At all.]

[Cassandra can at least maintain a little patience because it's not such an illogical leap of misunderstanding.]

The Circle of Magi was meant to be a place where mages could learn to wield their abilities safely. Those that could not would have their connection to the Fade severed and be made Tranquil for their safety and the safety of others.

But the Seekers failed in their duties. [It's not something she likes to admit, of course, but admit she must. She cannot and will not overlook the failings of the Seekers any more than she will the Templars.] Not all Circles were the same, but the Templars were abusive in many. Far too many.

[There's a lot of information here that she doesn't quite understand, but she's tucking it away for later. She's going to ask Hawke or Dorian what the Fade is, and what being made Tranquil means. Because there's a time an a place to pry about details and she's sense now isn't that time.]

You must be a very good Seeker. Only those who are very good can take responsibility when they don't live up their own expectations.

[Clearly the phrase "very good" has a dual meaning. Syeira thinks Cassandra must be Lawful Good.]

[Cassandra has been told similar things by others, Cole and the Inquisitor especially. They believe in her to be better and she'd like to as well. But sometimes it's not as simple and straightforward as that. Still, she can appreciate the sentiment even from a near-stranger.]

Thank you. It is my hope that the Seekers can be rebuilt. I see things now with open eyes and would use that to make them better than they were.

I know that is idealism and unlikely, but I must try.

[She still believes in the ideals set forth by the Seekers, of what they were meant to be. Whatever she can do to bring that closer to reality, she will do without question.]

All things started as ideas.

[You can do it, Cassandra!]

Hopefully, you'll get home and make them realities.

And what about you? What of your world?

[She's more than happy to shift the attention, and any praise, away from her at this point. So many compliments... How do????]

[Turnabout is fair play.]

My world is called Toril. And I'm originally from the Library Fortress of Candlekeep, which is near a city called Baldur's Gate.

I don't really hold any kind of position. I'm mostly just an adventurer, by necessity.

[Nothing here is a lie. She just doesn't like diving directly into the heavier information without at least a little preface.]

You make it sound as though you lead a relatively ordinary life.

[And if her tone is skeptical, that's because it is. She speaks almost too plainly of it.]

I...

It's honestly so horribly extraordinary, to the point I don't know how to explain it, without sounding like I'm utterly making it up.

[Oh, Syeira. If only you knew the stories Cassandra has listened to as well as been a part of. Her threshold for disbelief is pretty high.]

Try me.

All right.

[Inhale.]

I'm a daughter of the dead God of Murder, Bhaal. I discovered this two years ago when one of my half siblings came to kill me, and murdered my foster father. I killed him and prevented the war he tried to start in order to ascend to our father's throne.

After that I was abducted by a powerful mage who tortured me and my sister, and murdered my friends. We escaped for about three minutes, before the made orchestrated his and Imoen's arrest by an organization known as the Cowled Wizards. Which was just a long ruse to destroy a powerful thieves guild and lure me back into a trap so he could steal my divine soul.

Have I lost you yet? Because there's more.

I can see what you meant about it being difficult to believe, but go on.

[Cassandra gives no indication that she doubts any of this, however. She doesn't know how Syeira's world works and only has her word to go by. She seems the honest sort though and hasn't given Cassandra any reason to believe she's trying to pull the wool over her eyes.]

[This is actually the most she's told anyone in the fleet about herself so far. Not even Zhas was given this much information, but then, he hasn't asked about her life, just what she was.]

The mage, Irenicus, tore out my soul, which he then used to try to regain his lost immortality. He gave Imoen's to his vampiric sister Bodhi, for the same reason. They'd apparently been banished from the elven land in Suldanessellar after trying to become gods by draining the Tree of Life of its power.

We killed Bodhi, and tracked Irenicus through the subterranean kingdoms of the Underdark, where he had gone to recruit the Drow elves to help him wage war on the surface. We ruined that on our way out, broke into Suldanessellar, which had been hidden by a powerful invisibility spell, killed his black dragon, and then finally killed the mage himself.

Only that somehow dragged us all down into Hell. The one made just for us bhaalspawn after we're slain an our Taint returns to our father to further his resurrection. But we were all still alive, and Irenicus was attempting to escape, and trap us there. We defeated him and were able to return to Suldanessellar. And then I woke up on the Marsiva.

[She frowns thoughtfully.]

This has to be how all those rumors get started. It's already barely believable and I left out all the in between things.

Edited 2015-04-25 16:37 (UTC)

[There are parts of what Syeira recounts to Cassandra that sounds strikingly similar to everything that has happened in Thedas recently. It's certainly enough to make one question whether or not there are potential connections, but likely to not provide a satisfying answer. So there is another part of what Syeira tells Cassandra that she latches onto.]

He was able to take your soul from you?

After extensive torture of both myself and Imoen, yes. I don't remember most of it.

[Except the pain. People say you can't remember pain, bit they're wrong. When the pain is inside your very being, you can't forget it.]

I got it back though.

[Cassandra won't say that she's sorry that Syeira had to suffer like that. It's just not an experience in which you say sorry and have it hold any significant meaning.]

And the mage who did this to you, you said you defeated him. Does that mean he is dead or simply trapped?

I'm not sure the distinction matters. Where he is...

[She almost said she wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy, but.]

He's certainly earned it, in any case.

[The distinction could matter, Cassandra thinks. No matter how bad the realm he was left behind in was. Individuals like that, those that would do anything to advance their own power, sometimes are only truly able to be stopped by death. (Provided they haven't found a way to cheat it, of course.) They can survive conditions like Hell; perhaps even come to thrive within it.]

Then I pray that is the last you will see of him. A man like that would be impossible to bring to justice through any other means.

I have no doubt his fate is what he deserves.

[This is not really something a person says 'thank you' for, so she just nods.]

Well, anyway, see? I'm not very normal at all.

I would say not. I...

[No, it's weird to say you appreciate her sharing, Cassandra. Don't say that.]

I should like to hear some of the details another time. If there is time and you would like to.

[Smoooooooooooooth.]

[It wouldn't be so weird. To Sye, anyway.]

Well, I imagine once we get this thing up and moving, I'll have a lot of time on my hands again.

[Oh right, she's holding a repair part still.]

Oddly enough there's not a lot to do in space. I'd enjoy chatting with you again any time you like.

[c:]

I would like that. [But she does stand aside.] Do not let me keep you from your duties, however.

Yeah, I should probably get this where it's going. Glad to have you aboard, Madam Seeker.

[With a smile and a nod, she goes to drop off her cargo.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

who's steering this thing anyway?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject